Adobe Shows Support for its new Digital Negative Initiative

[James Fee]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200409/092704DNGQUOTES.html' target='_blank'>http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200409/092704DNGQUOTES.html</a><br /><br /></div>A couple days ago <a href="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=47285">Adobe talked</a> about the new RAW format for digital cameras. Well now they are attempting to show all the suppor they have for it. Microsoft, Getty Images, National Geographic, HP, and others have all given quotes to Adobe to show that there are many people ready to use the format. The only problem, there are no digital camera makers other than HP that have said DNG is important to them. To be honest, without Canon or Nikon signing on, this format will have a long way to go before it can be the RAW standard.<br /><br />Don't get me wrong, I'm all for this. Beyond the worry of the longevity of these RAW formats, the ability to share them with others is very difficult due to not every program being able to read NEF and CRW files (unless they are convert to jpeg). Also, these RAW format change from time to time and older software can't read RAW files from newer cameras making archiving them difficult. Maybe with Microsoft on board, native support for DNG in Windows Longhorn might be a possibility and in that case, file management will be much better.

[bcre8v2]

... but I am all for standards, as long as the standard is not owned by one company.

[Doug Johnson]

Support from camera makers would be ideal, and I suspect that eventually they'll come on board (notice how several cameras support the Adobe RGB color space). But it might not be quite as critical as it might seem at first.

As long as Adobe has a conversion tool that will convert the major manufacturer's RAW files to DNG, we've already gone a long way. Take your pictures, copy them to your computer, convert to DNG, and keep the DNG files.

The biggest problem with the lack of a standard for RAW files is that you are limited in what software tools you can use with them. Ten years down the road, who knows whether you can import the file into your photo editor/viewer. Assuming DNG catches on, converting the files to DNG helps to insure that the pictures will be viewable long into the future.

Because of the nature of RAW files, converting to DNG doesn't affect image quality (at least in theory). So, really there isn't any down side to making the conversion on your files at this point.

[James Fee]

... but I am all for standards, as long as the standard is not owned by one company.
I would tend to agree with that statement, but using PDF as an example, Adobe has not done anything to harm users.

[James Fee]

The biggest problem with the lack of a standard for RAW files is that you are limited in what software tools you can use with them. Ten years down the road, who knows whether you can import the file into your photo editor/viewer. Assuming DNG catches on, converting the files to DNG helps to insure that the pictures will be viewable long into the future.That was my biggest worry and why I always save a JPG with the RAW files. Now, I'm just going to convert all the CRW files to DNG and as long as I have Photoshop I'll be fine.